The properties in which we live are generally our biggest purchases in life, they are the places we spend much of our time, the places we fill with valuable possessions and one of the things we would least like to live without. Taking these simple facts in to account, the questions we must ask are, do our homes need protecting? If so, what type of protection do they need?

Selling a property can be expensive. There’s removal costs, legal fees, utility bills to settle, but by quite a way the largest expenditure (after repaying your mortgage) will usually the estate agent’s fee. Estate agents charge a percentage of the eventual sale price, typically between 1% – 2%, plus VAT. This means that even on a relatively modest sale price of, say, £100,000 the estate agent’s fee will probably be somewhere between £1,200 – £2,400.

As London prepares to celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, Victorian themes are dominating the cultural scene, (see www.dickens2012.org) from film and theatre to festivals, exhibitions, cultural tours and interactive shows.

Being at risk of having your property can be terrifying and can be very lonely. You are worried about what will happen if you lose your home and perhaps embarrassed about what people will think. The reality is you should not be embarrassed – tens of thousands of people are repossessed each year and as the recession bites harder they are on the increase.Read the rest of this entry »

You might think that installing something as large and life-changing as a solar panel on your home means big repercussions on your insurance premium, whether for the better or worse.

Well, there’s a balance at work: on the one hand, environmentally aware homeowners like yourself are usually less likely to claim and insurers can’t really penalise people for doing something that’s so eco-friendly and positive. On the other hand, the solar panels are both valuable in themselves and add value to your home, which means your payout might have to be larger if you were to claim.

Whether you’re an existing student or you’re looking forward to starting university next year, there’s always a lot to think about – modules to choose, loans to arrange, books to buy and people to meet! But you shouldn’t overlook your choice of city centre flats, or leave it until the last minute – places start filling up incredibly quickly, and if you don’t want to be left with a lack of options it’s always a good idea to plan ahead.

High house prices hit personal lives of Britain’s stay-at-home grown ups, reveals survey. Living with mum and dad is ruining the sex lives of Britain’s stay-at-home ‘kidults’ according to a survey commissioned by North West property development company, FreshStart Living.

If you’re a professional in a major city, the place you live has a major impact on your lifestyle. From access to transport facilities, amenities such as gyms and shops and even your job, most people want everything to be close by so they spend less time travelling and more time enjoying their lives. For this reason, city centre flats are the ideal solution for young professionals who want to have everything on their doorstep – not only because travel costs are lower, but because they feel more involved with the city they live in.

These are tough times for first time buyers trying to get a foot on the first rung of the property ladder. The high loan to value mortgages of the noughties are consigned to banking history and these days, a deposit of 15% – 20% will need to be raised, along with legal costs, survey costs and all of the other expenses associated with moving in to a new home. In reality this means that first time buyers are needing to raise at least £15,000 to £20,000, often much more to have a hope of buying their first home.

The relationship between a vendor and their selling agent is often paramount to the success of a property sale; however there are many intricacies that are simply overlooked or forgotten, often to the detriment of the sale.

A “Village Green” is an area of open land on which “a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality… have indulged as a right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years”. In order to protect a right to continue using an area of land for those purposes it must be registered under the Commons Act 2006. Once registered, the land must remain open and cannot be developed.